Turning trash into cash
GOING GREEN | Ad-bearing trash, recycling bins get test
Chicago already has more than 2,000 bus shelters and sidewalk billboards that carry advertising and generate sorely needed revenue.
How about ad-bearing recycling bins?
City Hall has given Aurora-based Free Green Can the go-ahead to install its free recycling containers at city festivals this summer to test a concept already in place in downtown Oswego and at the Schaumburg Flyers stadium.
Chief Environmental Officer Sadhu Johnston disclosed the summer test after company officials were seen wheeling one of the ad-bearing containers into Johnston's City Hall office earlier this week.
"It's intriguing. All good ideas are intriguing," he said, refusing to reveal the city's potential share of ad revenue.
Steve Holland, president and founder of Free Green Can, was equally tight-lipped. He would say only that the summer test could lead to bigger and better things.
"It looks like it's a possibility," Holland said. "I would love to talk to you about this. I want to tell you everything. But I don't want to make any waves with the city."
According to the company's Web site, Holland founded Free Green Can last summer after watching his son play baseball at a suburban park. His son tried to throw away a plastic water bottle, but found only one overflowing recycling bin and countless garbage cans filled with plastic bottles and paper cups.
When Holland asked local officials why there were so few recycling containers, he was told the city couldn't afford them. An idea was born.
Ads are open to "any environmentally responsible company, organization or person," helping the sponsor "build a green reputation," the Web site states.
"These free green cans attract attention. Their design creates public curiosity," the Web site states.
"With billboard and sign ordinances, there are limited opportunities to display your company logo or name. The free green can is being approved in locations that, in the past, have been unobtainable."
The 20-year bus shelter contract was awarded to a French company in 2001 after City Hall bypassed a more lucrative offer. JC Decaux guaranteed the city $307 million in advertising revenue, nearly half of that sum to be paid in the last five years.
The offer to provide Chicago with free recycling containers comes as City Hall is in the process of making a citywide switch to suburban-style curbside recycling.
So far, 240,000 households have received blue recycling carts, with the latest rollout in Lincoln Park. All 600,000 households that get city garbage pickups are expected to make the conversion by 2011.
Streets and Sanitation spokesman Matt Smith had no immediate information on the number of recycling containers on city sidewalks and in city parks. But he noted that some commercials strips have bought solar-powered trash compactors funded by local property owners.